EVIDENCE FORM

I have read UB’s policy on cheating and plagiarism (see UB’s website for more information). I have done all work myself with no HELP from anybody or any source. Please put your name in the line below to certify the above statement.

RUEDA JOHNNY

Last First

MAX points 60

Start time 1:40 PM End time 4:30PM

TIME TAKEN to COMPLETE The EXAM(not including DFD time) 2 hours 20 minutes

GENERIC ANSWERS/ANALYSIS WILL NOT GET CREDIT

·  Use double space & 11 or 12 font

·  BE VERY SPECIFIC (Quality is important than quantity, but do not shortchange your answers)

·  TO GET CREDIT YOUR ANALYSIS MUST FOLLOW CONCEPTS IN THE BOOK & READINGS.

(You MUST reference book, reading and other resources as you relate your analysis to concepts)

·  DO NOT GO OFF ON generic TANGENTS.

·  MAKE reasonable ASSUMPTIONS IF YOU NEED TO and list them

READ VERY CAREFULLY BEFORE STARTING!!!!!

Ques #1

Multiple Choice:

(5 points)

1. A supervisor having to decide when to reorder supplies or how best to allocate personnel for the completion of the project is an example of a ______decision.

a. structured

b. unstructured

c. semi-structured

d. none of the above

2. Each team has only one home stadium and each stadium can have many home teams. This is an example of what kind of relationship between TEAM and HOME STADIUM?

a.  1:1

b.  1:m

c.  m:n

d. m:1

3 Most e-commerce applications are ______systems that respond to a multitude of events – from a new customer's first website access, to payment and delivery processes, and to numerous customer relationship and supply chain management activities.

A) Knowledge management based.

B) Groupware.

C) Event-driven.

D) Workflow based.

4 Which of the following statements is not an example of applying information technologies to business processes using the value chain network?

A) Collaborative workflow intranet based system to increase the communications and collaboration needed to dramatically improve administrative coordination and support services.

B) Playing catch-up to competitors to offer services or products similar to your competitors.

C) Computer aided engineering and design extranets to enable a company and its business partners to jointly design products and processes.

D) Career development intranet that can help the human resources management function provide employees with professional development training programs.

5. There are many types of B2B businesses. Buy-side marketplaces attract many suppliers that come to the exchange to bid on the business of a major buyer. This is an example of which type of marketplace between BUYER and SELLER?

A) Many to one.

B) One to many.

C) Many to some.

D) Many to many.


Ques #2.

Wendy’s International, a hamburger chain, is losing sales to competition. They know they are in maturing business where competition (McDonald, Burger King, Roy Rogers etc..) is very high and buyer’s power is high. They have hired you help them analyze their situation and suggest a course of action to revamp their business. How can value-chain be used to identify strategies? Generic answer will not get much credit. must relate to Wendy’s situation.

(8 points)

The value chain model can be used to identify potential strategies that may increase the competitiveness of Wendy’s. Through this methodology, Wendy’s may be able to analyze its supply-chain and identify activities that generate value for the customer (primary activities) and activities that do not. Activities that don’t generate value for the customer should be further analyzed (some of these activities may be needed to support the accomplishments of primary activities.) By identifying critical processes within its supply chain, Wendy’s may be able to direct its attention to what is valuable for the customer, which makes the strategies identified with this model highly focused toward customer satisfaction. Also, these critical processes may be compared against those of McDonald’s to identify opportunities for improvement.

Overall, using the value chain model to identify strategies for increasing market share should be very effective. This methodology will allow Wendy’s to identify what is considered as value for the customer, and the different approaches taken by its competition (McDonalds, Burger King, Roy Rogers) to provide this value. For example, if we assume that customers prefer to eat healthier food nowadays, using a value-chain model will allow Wendy’s to focus its attention on the activities that are critical to bring fresh food to the customer’s table. In this case, processes like purchasing and food storage/handling must be reviewed by management to identify opportunities for improvement. Strategies may also be identified by determining current procedures followed by McDonalds in those critical processes

Ques #3

Go to the following site:

http://www.wholegrain.com/nltutor.html

(Note: if ctrl+click does not work, type the url in your browser)

(6 points)

This will take you to the wholegrain site:

No Need to do the ---NutriLabeler Demo Tutorial (no need to download software)

Go through the screens provided on this page and answer the following:

Part a. What type of a system NutriLabeler is? (Transaction processing system (TPS); Decision Support System (DSS); Expert System (ES); Executive Information System (EIS); Neural Network (NN) etc.. and explain you reasoning

The capabilities of Nutrilabeler may be able to classify it as an expert system. This system captures knowledge from skilled personnel to determine the nutritional facts from a specific recipe. It also uses a knowledge base to determine whether a recipe may be claimed as sugar free, low fat, low sodium, among others. The knowledge base that may be identified in this system corresponds not only to the set of rules use to determine “free/low” claims allowable, but also the ingredients database, and how the system integrates all those ingredients to calculate nutritional facts. The strategy used by Nutrilabeler to search through its knowledge base corresponds to forward chaining. The system begins with the information entered by the user and searches the rule base to arrive to a conclusion (textbook page 428.)

Part b. What are the main components/capabilities of this system? Describe them.

Nutrilabeler has many components/capabilities that may be useful for the final users, it includes:

1. Identify the nutritional facts from a recipe: Nutrilabeler uses a database, and the information entered by the user, to determine the nutritional facts per serving from a specific recipe. The system has the capability to allow users to create, edit, search, and generate a nutrition facts label as well.

2. Review the nutrient analysis for a specific ingredient: Even though this feature is not mentioned in the tutorial, the system allows its users to review the nutrient analysis for any ingredient included into the ingredients database.

3. Update the ingredients database: Nutrilabeler allows its users to update the information saved in its ingredient database. User may be able to add other ingredients or to update the information for the existing ones. This feature allows the system to provide users with more accurate results as equipment accuracy increases over time.

4. Calculate the cost of a specific recipe: This feature is not mentioned in the tutorial either. According to the 4th system screenshot, users may be able to calculate recipe cost after selecting all its ingredients.

5. See calculations employed to arrive to results: The system also allows its users to observe the calculations that were used to determine all the different items that must be reported on the nutrition fact label.

6. Determine the “free/low” claims allowable for a specific recipe: Based on a predefined set of rules, the system calculates if a recipe may be claimed as sugar free, low fat, or low sodium recipe (i.e. to classify a recipe as a low fat one, it may me 96% fat free.)

Ques #4

At LDS Hospital, in Salt Lake City, Utah, an expert system helps doctors select the best antibiotic for a given patient. For example, when a critically ill hospital patient has a severe cough, the doctor may suspect a lung infection. However, deciding on the proper antibiotic treatment is exceedingly complex, especially because the doctor must often decide on the antibiotic even before test results are available. Factors that should be taken into account before prescribing antibiotics include the patient's medical history, the most likely bacterial culprits, and the most inexpensive drug that is effective against all of the bacteria in that class, the proper dosage, and possible drug interactions. Since this is a complex and knowledge-intensive problem, an expert system is well suited to this application. The expert system developed by LDS Hospital is considered to be "the most complex artificial intelligence system ever created for clinical decision-making." Termed the "antibiotic computer consultant," the system runs on a fault-tolerant mainframe and is part of a hospital-wide information system called Health Evaluation through Logical Processing (HELP).

It has been found that physicians who use the expert system make better decisions and make them faster. The computer has suggested the best antibiotic regimen for 94% of the cases studied, whereas unaided physicians have had only a 77% success rate. The expert system accesses the electronic medial records of a patient and carefully examines several variables in that patient's health history. It then looks for similar cases nationwide over the last 10 years to gain a better understanding of the disease. Only after it has analyzed the disease and the history of the patient does the system make a recommendation.

(8 points)

Part 1.Give at least two reasons why the system outperforms the physician in its ability to prescribe the appropriate antibiotic.

The main reasons why the expert system used at LDS hospital outperforms doctors in their ability to prescribe the appropriate antibiotic are:

1. The expert system at LDS hospital uses information to make its decision that may not be available to doctors on a timely manner. As mentioned in the case, most of the time doctors have to prescribe an antibiotic prior to test results being available. Due to the processing capabilities of a computer, the expert system used at the hospital may come up with a fast solution after evaluating tons of data.

2. Expert systems analyze more variables prior to prescribing an antibiotic for an ill patient. Doctors have to prescribe an antibiotic based on mainly three factors:

a. Patient’s medical history

b. Most likely bacterial culprits (identified from symptoms)

c. Price of a drug

On the other hand, the expert system used at LDS hospital bases its antibiotic of choice on the three factors mentioned above plus it analyzes the effectiveness of previously prescribed antibiotic on similar cases nationwide. Identifying antibiotics that did not perform well in the past, allow the expert system to avoid making a mistake twice.

3. The expert system used at the hospital contains a knowledge base created by multiple skilled and experienced doctors. The doctor may overlook certain characteristics because he needs to come up with a diagnosis quickly without having all of the necessary information available.

Part 2. Why is this problem well suited for modeling in an expert system? Are knowledge collaboration and coordination important for this problem? Explain

The process of prescribing the best antibiotic available to ill patients is well suited for modeling in an expert system. In this process, doctors use their knowledge to evaluate a series of rules prior to prescribing a drug to a patient. For example, doctors may discard several possible diseases on a patient by evaluating his/her symptoms. Also, a doctor may decide not to prescribe an antibiotic if a patient’s medical history shows that he/she is allergic to some of the components of the drug. Since expert systems follow this same principle of evaluating a set of rules prior to arriving at a conclusion, they are ideal for prescribing antibiotics. In an expert system, the knowledge of skilled employees is captured in the form of a set of rules and may be used by others in an organization (textbook page 428.)

Knowledge collaboration and coordination are important in the process of prescribing antibiotics. Knowledge collaboration from hospitals, doctors, and laboratories in charge of developing new antibiotics is critical to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of this process. Without knowledge collaboration,

- The information available for both expert systems and doctors may not be up to date and relevant.

- Antibiotics prescribed to ill patients may not be the best option available for them.

- Continuous process improvement is harder to achieve, among others.

Knowledge coordination is also required from hospitals, doctors, and labs. Knowledge in this process should be coordinated to ensure that it is condensed in easy to use and integrated system. The knowledge base used by expert systems should also be updated on a regular basis to ensure that the results from those systems keep performing well.

Ques #5

Palm City Police Department

8 points

The Palm City Police Department has eight defined precincts. The police station in each precinct has primary responsibility

for all activities in its precinct area. The table below lists the current population of each precinct, the number of violent

crimes committed in each precinct and the number of officers assigned to each precinct. The department has established a

goal of equalizing access to police services.

a. Build a spreadsheet using EXCEL

b. Currently, no funds are available to hire additional officers. Based on the citywide ratios, the department has decided to develop a plan to shift resources as needed in order to ensure that no precinct has more than 1,100 residents per police officer and no precinct has more than seven violent crimes per police officer. The department will transfer officers from precincts that easily meet these goals to precincts that violate one or both of these ratios. Use "goal seeking" on your spreadsheet to move police officers between precincts until the goals are met. You can use the goal seek function to see how many officers would be required to bring each precinct into compliance and then judgmentally reduce officers in precincts that are substantially within the criteria.

Question1: Describe the various components of the DSS for Palm City Police department